US faces coldest days in recent history

Chicago: Clifton Jackson has survived three winters on the streets of Chicago, but no night in that time has been as cold as the one he was preparing for on Sunday afternoon.

When he spoke to Fairfax Media on a sidestreet a block from the bronze lions that guard the city’s famed Art Institute about 4pm, the snow had already been falling for 24 hours and the temperature was 10 degrees below zero and dropping fast.

Sometime overnight it was expected to reach 22 below. If all goes to plan, by then Mr Jackson, who celebrated his 52nd birthday earlier this week, will be riding the trains.

When it’s really cold, he explains, the guards don’t bother the homeless.

The vicious cold snap that has hit much of the United States has been borne south from the Arctic by what is known as a polar vortex and it could cause some of the coldest temperatures in recent history in parts of the country. It was predicted that in Minnesota sometime over Sunday night the wind chill may go as low as -52 degrees, temperatures the National Weather Service called “historic and dangerous''.

Even before the worst of the cold weather hit, snowfalls had caused damage across the country. A plane from Toronto slid off the runway at JFK Airport in New York after landing without injuring its passengers.

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In western Colorado the co-pilot was killed when a private aircraft crashed at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport. Of the two other people on board, one suffered serious injuries.

In Chicago authorities have been preparing for a 60-hour period of temperatures below -18 degrees - the longest such period for 18 years.

Braving the cold: Chicago man Clifton Jackson, who is homeless and at the mercy of the extreme weather.

Many schools, universities and businesses will be closed and people are being urged to stay at home. Those who choose to drive are being warned to stay in their vehicles if they have an accident rather than trying to brave the outside air.

It is thought that on Monday the record for the lowest-ever maximum temperature - 23 degrees below zero - could fall, with wind chill bringing the apparent temperature down to 40 below.

Wreckage: A plane crash at Aspen airport that killed one person and injured two others. Photo: AP

By the time the sun set about 5pm on Sunday evening, snow had been falling for 27 hours in Chicago. A fleet of trucks laying down salt and shifting snow had kept the city running, though the pavements, and particularly the pedestrian crossings, were becoming difficult to navigate.

Many stores on the city’s prime shopping strip were closing early. Many more were preparing to stay closed on Monday.

In an editorial, the Chicago Tribune wrote with pride of the city’s stoicism on Sunday: “Just getting to work is enough to prove your steely perseverance beyond all doubt. Getting groceries or putting gas in the car qualifies as heroic. Taking the dog for a bedtime walk will evoke praise, though not envy, from all witnesses. Making it to the gym is enough to earn a Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

Mr Jackson says he has no plans to find a bed in a homeless shelter in the coming days, as he fears losing what little he owns to thieves. If he can’t get himself onto the trains he will huddle up in an alcove with one or two other homeless men, sharing their blankets and body warmth until the sun rises.